Social Sciences Academy Gathers Superstars
By Elizabeth Lev
ROME, MAY 3, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The tranquil silence of the Vatican Gardens was interrupted this week by a burst of activity circulating around the Casina Pio IV, the exquisite little villa nestled in the heart of the garden, today home to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
The academy's 32 members meet every year to reflect on questions regarding Catholic social thought, and in the course of their deliberations they invite experts in various fields to address the academy and offer the fruit of their experience and study.
What made this session unique was that while discussing the question of "Charity and Justice in the Relations Among People and Nations," the academy invited a record number of speakers, many of whom were of superstar status on the world's religious and political stage.
The topics analyzed by the prestigious group ranged from the economics of charity and aid, to world peace, to interreligious dialogue, to migration and poverty. Practical ideas, concrete facts, hopeful signs and disappointing results were all laid out before the academicians.
The Roman Curia participated in the sessions at the highest level. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, all gave addresses at the meeting.
Benedict XVI sent a letter to the president of the academy, Mary Ann Glendon, in which he emphasized that in the Christian experience charity and justice were inseparable, something he had discussed in his first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est."
The Holy Father brought three challenges to the attention of the scholars -- the environment and sustainable development, respect for the rights and dignity of persons, and the loss of spiritual values in developed countries. The academy was enjoined many times to purify reason through faith recalling the Pope's words, "Faith liberates reason from its blind spots and therefore helps it do its work more effectively."
"Deus Caritas Est" served as a point of departure for the session. Dominican Father Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke in the first meeting about the encyclical underlining the distinction made by the Holy Father between "eros" and "agape," two Greek words for love, the former being love as desire and the second the Christian form of self-giving love.
Father Di Noia pointed out that the modern world erroneously sees the Church as opposed to "eros" and as seeking to suppress man's desire, whereas in fact the Church sees all forms of love as an inclination toward the good which can "find its complete fulfillment in the love of the triune God."
The Dominican also warned the academy that a secular anthropology based on an "alternate account of the meaning of human existence" has come to shape the programs of many international organizations. In this modern vision of human good, the Church's efforts are often "caricatured as retrogressive and intrusive."
Father Di Noia concluded his remarks by exhorting the social scientists of the academy to "counter this secular anthropology and the social engineering programs inspired by it," thus laying out the challenge facing the academy over the next few days.
Keeping the Future Present
Pope John Paul II founded the Academy of Social Sciences in 1994. The meeting of the academy in 2007 underscored how much the world had changed from its first meetings. The revolutions of the Internet, the change in the power of nations and the rise of terrorism have changed the face of globalization since the academy's initial sessions.
Some of these contemporary challenges were laid out by Henry Kissinger, who addressed the academy on the second day of meetings. The former U.S. secretary of state (1973-1977) gave a fascinating talk on the shifting relations between the nation-state and other political entities.
The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War, saw the rise of the modern nation-state, and the decline of the authority of the papacy and the Holy Roman emperor.
In the course of the transition from national monarchies based on claims of divine right to constitutional governments based on popular consent, the individual gained importance. Kissinger noted that in recent years, with economic globalization, nation-states have been becoming weaker, yet they remain the principal entities to which citizens look for assistance in dealing with the disruptive effects of that same globalization.
With reference to the present world situation, Kissinger also suggested that a nation is in trouble when it is no longer able to ask for sacrifices from its citizens, and when its citizens cease to "think the future is more important than the present." Those concerns were interestingly similar to those expressed by John Paul II in "Ecclesia in Europa" where the Holy Father pleaded with Europeans not to give up hope, not to cease believing in the future, and to continue to have children so that the continent would be ensured a future.
As does the Church, Kissinger relativized the temporal importance of the state, stating that a nation should have a sense of greatness beyond oneself, a recognition of the divine. Thus, it appears that, in his own way, the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize winner may also believe in purifying reason through faith.
Abraham's Tent
One of the most interesting sessions was the day on interreligious dialogue and world peace. Chaired by Mary Ann Glendon, academy president, an illustrious round-table discussion looked at the status of relations among the religions. Cardinal Kaspar opened the session, followed by Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee, Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, and Patriarch Antonios Naguib of Alexandria of the Catholic Copts.
Cardinal Kaspar spoke beautifully on the necessity of prayer in dialogue among religions. When people approach a conversation on faith, prayer leaves "hearts more open" and aware that they are discussing something more important than their own interests.
Cardinal Sfeir gave a moving testimony of life in modern-day Lebanon, once a great model for peaceful coexistence among diverse religions, now a hotbed of tensions among its 16 various religions. Patriarch Naguib spoke from a pastoral point of view, bringing up four necessary points for interreligious dialogue -- truth, liberty, love and prayer. He particularly emphasized the importance of forgiveness, saying that without it, there can only be "an endless spiral of pride and violence."
Rabbi Rosen started by noting that "religion should be part of the solution, not the problem." Citing John Paul II's description of the various world religions as "life's interpretive keys," he discussed the question of religion and identity.
The rabbi ended his remarks with an arresting example to which all three of the great monotheistic religions could turn, that of Abraham, model of hospitality. "Abraham's tent," he said, "was open at all four corners, ready to welcome any visitor from any direction." When angels came to his door, there was no need to specify that they were messengers from God, because "Abraham saw every man as God's messenger."
Although the participants pointed out that many wars declared for the sake of religion are really territorial conflicts using religion as a mask, all the speakers agreed that "there cannot be peace among nations without peace among religions."
The four days of academy meetings were both provocative and fruitful, but after listening to leading intellectuals, policy-makers and Church officials, the social scientists closed on a humble note. The plenary session ended with a prayer written by Óscar Romero, the Salvadoran archbishop who was assassinated while celebrating Mass in a small chapel near his cathedral.
Using the words of the archbishop, they reminded themselves, "We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen."
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Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University's Italian campus. She can be reached at
Code: ZE07050329
Date: 2007-05-03